What are the chances of this buy to let mortgage offer appearing?

kazzamunga

The latest in our flat-selling saga amounts to this: solicitors have completed all inquiries, Land Registry have removed all restrictions, we've incurred maybe £1500 of solicitors' costs...and no one has been able to get a hold of the buyer at all for the last 2 weeks. The latest email we received didn't sound particularly reassuring:

To summarise, things are taking much longer now. Lender is experiencing major delays and also have brought in tougher lending checks and strict criteria around affordability, and this is all due to Covid-19. The lender is heavily going through our finances again and they have picked up the fact that some of our rents are not being paid in, and currently we are being questioned about this. I am working on this daily and will contact you once we have more info.

Now this was sent on 20th May, and their solicitor, our solicitor and our agent haven't head anything from the buyer since. Does anyone believe that the lender would still be experiencing major delays, that they have no updates, almost 2 weeks later? I myself had a valuation survey carried out today, having changed lenders last week. Things seem to be moving again. How long do we wait to hear back from this woman, what would be a good ultimatum to set her, and what do you think the chances of her actually getting a mortgage are anyway, if she has gaps in the rent payments? Is this sale dead in the water (again??)?

kazzamunga

Update: my broker said that plenty of lenders would just ask for proof of funds to cover the shortfall. I don't understand what kind of 'investors' these people are if they aren't able to provide that, as it seems fairly simple?

AdrianC

Yes, it's entirely possible that a commercial mortgage could be taking a long while to progress currently.
No, we have no idea from that snippet whether they actually are proceedable or not.

If you really want to start looking for another buyer, goferit.

kazzamunga

No I don't want to - I just really don't know if we're wasting our time here in trying to be patient and understanding, because (and I speak from experience, since this same buyer did the same thing the first time they decided they wanted to buy this property before Christmas) she goes AWOL as a matter of routine. I wouldn't even be posting this if she was keeping us updated weekly, which is something we made very clear when we agreed to enter into a sale with this buyer a second time. 

AdrianC

Well, you've only got two choices...

1. Stick with this buyer
2. Find another buyer.

(OK... 3. Take it off the market)

You can insist all you like on some arbitrary communication deadlines. Do you want a message at a fixed time every week even if there's nowt to report? What will you do if you don't get it?

kazzamunga

I mean at a very basic level, it's just polite. And I like people to be polite and communicative, like I try to be with my vendor. Aside from that and in terms of our options, I'm not talking about going nuclear just yet, because what's the point. I just wanted to get an idea from brokers or experts on here, whether given the information that we have, which is that categorically, they are missing payments in their accounts, it's actually worth hanging on. I know you say that my snippet isn't enough to go by, but it's a fairly clear problem, and I'm asking if it's one that an investor and their lender would ordinarily be able to resolve, and if so, why that would take weeks to do? 

kazzamunga

No one here with any recent experience of delays in BTL mortgages at all? Or insight into the mechanics of a BTL lender? Seems surprising...

AdrianC

kazzamunga said:

No one here with any recent experience of delays in BTL mortgages at all? Or insight into the mechanics of a BTL lender? Seems surprising...

The issue here isn't generalities with BtL lenders.

 It's the specifics around a corporate BtL mortgage, and the acceptability of the borrower's finances in the face of owed rental from pre-existing tenants...

kazzamunga

Hi again AdrianC. I know that, I'm just fairly sure that my buyer isn't the only person in this situation, so I though someone might have some insight into another, similar situation. 

[Deleted User]

As @AdrianC says this isn't generalities with BTL lenders.  Even in normal circumstances different lenders go at different paces.  One lender could turn a mortgage round quickly and the other go at snails pace for an identical case.  You haven't said who the lender in question is to see if anyone else has applied for a mortgage with them recently.

kazzamunga

Just found this out - the lender is called Kent Reliance.